Pre and post-partition talks with Ex Ambassador Wajid Shams ul Hassan

London: Ex Ambassador, Wajid Shams ul Hassan speaks about partition, as seen from his eyes.

When Pakistan was formed on 14th August, 1947, I was 6 years and a few months old. We had left our house and came to a tent. There were dead bodies all around and dogs were feeding on them.

When Pakistan was created there was no discrimination on the basis of religion. Quaid e Azam clearly stated that in Pakistan there will be no religious politics. Our Quaid had said Pakistan will be a progressive, secular country where every person would be free to practice religion. Every person will have equal economic opportunity. Mosques, temples, churches everyone will have the freedom to pursue the religion they want. There was so much love in Karachi for the people who had migrated. GM Saeed there was a speech of GM Saeed in which appealed all Hindu Muslims to come and stay in Sindh.

Our generation saw a lot of bloodshed and it is still imprinted on our minds. We never thought we are going to have sectarian issues. A lot of institutions divided us so that they can preserve power and it brought our country to this stage. Religion was never an issue for us. When we lived in the subcontinent everybody was free to practice their religion. Muslims has that much liberty that a separate law was introduced for them to settle their family matters. We had economic issues with the British. At one place there was 80% who were educated. Amongst Muslims, educations started pretty late and that was also done by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan cause of which he was labelled a “kaafir.”

The biggest tragedy that happened with us is that the history presented to the younger generation is distorted. Our history for the younger generation starts at Muhammad Bin Qasim and ends at Zia ulHaq. Pakistan was made through democracy. Quaid e Azam never went to jail. He obtained Pakistan in a peaceful manner.” he recalls.